Insects. 1459 



On destroying Bees for the purpose of obtaining their honey.— The barbarous cus- 

 tom of destroying bees for the purpose of obtaining their honey is very prevalent 

 among the peasantiy in this part of England ; I have often lamented this unnecessary 

 destruction of insects, so useful to man, and which, if properly managed by the poor 

 cottager, would prove very profitable, and enable him to enjoy many comforts, which 

 his present limited means debar him from. A sincere desire to see a better, a more 

 humane system prevail among our poorer apiarists, has induced me to address you, in 

 the hope that some of your correspondents will in & plain, simple letter state the man- 

 ner in which honey may be removed from the hive without destroying its inhabitants, 

 and also the benefits which will inevitably accrue to the party pursuing this humane 

 system. I know that several have written upon this subject, but none have done so 

 with sufficient simplicity and conciseness. I shall feel greatly delighted and thank- 

 ful if my letter may be the means of inducing some of your numerous correspondents 

 to prove the poor apiarist's friend, by convincing him of the error of his present sys- 

 tem. — G. J. R. Hughes ; Whitehaven, June 24th, 1846. 



[Has my correspondent read Mr. Cotton's ' Bee Book ' ? The quotation there- 

 from in the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 24) seems an exact answer to his question. — Edward 

 Newman]. 



Note on the habits of Macrocnema marcida. — This little insect, which is usually 

 looked upon as one of the rarest of the British Halticae, I have found in profusion on 

 most of our coasts, occurring in abundance throughout the summer on the Purple Sea- 

 rocket (Cakile maritima), a plant far from uncommon on our sandy shores, where it 

 may be frequently seen almost buried in the shingle, and other rubbish which has 

 been drifted and accumulated around it. Wherever I have observed the plant to oc- 

 cur, I have never failed of finding the insect, — and often on the most minute and iso- 

 lated specimens, far removed from any other species of vegetation. Near Lowestoft, 

 on the Suffolk coast, I have taken it in profusion, where the plant on which it feeds 

 abounds amongst the drifted sand. At Yarmouth, in Norfolk, it also occurs on the 

 sandy flats facing the sea, though less profusely. At Tenby, in South Wales, I have 

 captured it, but never on any plant except Cakile maritima, which there also abounds, 

 growing profusely on the beach to the west of the town. On the north coast of 

 Devon, in 1844, I might have taken thousands on the sand hills at Braunton Bur- 

 rows, near Bideford, where the plant occurs in a few isolated instances near the new 

 lighthouse. In the Scilly Islands it is equally abundant, where Mr. Holme relates he 

 might have captured any number he pleased on St. Mary's. The insect, like many of 

 the Macrocnemas, is remarkable for counterfeiting death when the plant on which it 

 is feeding happens to be touched, — falling down to the sand (which, in colour, it re- 

 sembles most accurately) and remaining perfectly motionless for a considerable length 

 of time. 1 can only account for its supposed rarity on the hypothesis of its habitat be- 

 ing generally unknown ; forming, as it does, a striking instance of the exclusive man- 

 ner in which many insects attach themselves to particular plants, from which they 

 rarely, if ever, wander. — T. V. Wollaston, Jesus College, Cambridge, July 24th, 1846. 



Male Glowworm luminous. — I write to mention to you that during the very hot 

 weather last month, we were visited by a firefly, apparently of the Italian kind. It 

 flew in through an open window at night, and alarmed the servants (unaccustomed to 

 such visits) by alighting on their bed. It was unfortunately killed, but I saw it before 

 the light had ceased to shine, and can therefore give you any particulars you may 

 wish for. In the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1684 there is a paper by a Mr- 





